5 Most-Recent Pandemic Health Scares

Get up-to-date on infectious disease outbreaks from the past decade

By Meghan Ahearn

The recent outbreak of the H1N1 or swine flu virus brings to mind recent cases of infectious diseases that also had the potential to become global crises. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic must meet three conditions: A new virus emerges; it infects humans and causes severe symptoms; and it spreads easily from person to person. We examined the five most recent health scares to find out the facts and risks associated with each. For more information on all five illnesses, visit the World Health Organization website or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Bird FluDesignated by WHO as having serious pandemic risks, bird flu, a.k.a. avian influenza, is common among wild birds. (An estimated 150 million birds have been put to death throughout Asia and Europe due to the virus.) Though cases of human infection have been reported since 1997, the first outbreak among domesticated poultry, which later infected humans, occurred in mid 2003. Though only seven deaths related to bird flu have been reported globally, the disease is highly transmittable from poultry to humans via direct contact with infected birds or contact with surfaces infected by avian feces or secretions. Once a person is infected, the disease causes pneumonia-like symptoms and has high fatality rates. The H5N1 variation of the disease has caused the most severe cases in humans, but currently requires very close contact to spread from person to person.

SARSSevere acute respiratory syndrome, a.k.a. SARS, is a viral respiratory illness that spreads from person to person by close contact and can be transmitted by respiratory droplets released via coughs or sneezes from infected people. The disease first appeared in Southern China in late 2002 and originated from a previously unrecognized coronavirus. Symptoms include high fever, chills and body aches, and treatment is similar to that of pneumonia patients. During the 2002 to 2003 outbreak, 774 deaths were reported; however, no new cases have been discovered since July 2003.

West Nile VirusA seasonal virus which becomes more prevalent during the warmer summer months, West Nile Virus was first discovered in Africa in 1937. Transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes through bites, symptoms include high fever, headache, stiff neck and disorientation, and can lead to vision loss, coma and paralysis. Regular outbreaks have occurred around the world since 1994, and the first cases were discovered in the United States in 1999. Since the current virus is only transmitted via insect bites, it can only be spread from one person to another through blood transfusions, organ transplants, breastfeeding and from mother to child during pregnancy. In 2008, there were 44 deaths in the U.S. from the disease.

Mad Cow DiseaseFirst occurring during the 1970s in the United Kingdom, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a.k.a. mad cow disease, is a fatal neurological disease primarily found in cattle. Outbreaks of the disease peaked in 1993, primarily in the UK, but cases have been found as recently as 2007 throughout Europe and North America. The condition is thought to have spread to cattle and other farm animals when meal made from infected meat and bone products was fed to the animals. There are no known cases of the disease spreading from animal to human through direct contact. However, new research has linked mad cow disease to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative condition in humans, due to the ingestion of contaminated meats. Between 1995 and 2004, 158 cases of vCJD were reported, most in the UK.

TuberculosisThis infectious bacterial disease of the lungs dates back as far as 9,000 years, though it was not identified as a disease until the 1820s. Transmitted from person to person when infected people cough, sneeze, spit or talk and release droplets into the air, the most recent health scare occurred in 2007 when Andrew Speaker flew commercially from the U.S. to France, then later to Eastern Europe and Canada, while infected with the disease. However, it was later discovered that Speaker suffered from a less resistant form of the disease, called multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, rather than the more drug-resistant strain known as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. In 2008, 12,898 cases of tuberculosis were reported in the U.S.; almost 2 million tuberculosis-related deaths occur worldwide.

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